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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Samuel 22:1 - 22:5
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David a Fugitive in Judah and Moab
v. 1. David, therefore, because he could find no refuge in the land of the Philistines, departed thence and escaped to the cave Adullam, in the foothills of the Judean mountains, about sixteen miles southwest of Jerusalem; and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him, all his nearest relatives joined him, evidently because they feared the revenge of Saul upon their entire family; for it was nothing unusual for an Oriental prince to destroy a whole family for the fault of one person.
v. 2. And everyone that was in distress, feeling that the government of Saul was an arbitrary misrule, and everyone that was in debt, oppressed by his creditors and having failed to receive from the government that protection against the violation of the law of loan and interest which he might expect, Exo_22:25; Lev_25:36; Deu_23:19, and everyone that was discontented, bitter or embittered of soul, whose anxiety of soul over the condition of the kingdom, as it grew worse from day to day, drove them to a leader from whom they might, for the future, hope for better things, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them, their leader; and there were with him about four hundred men, the number afterward rising to six hundred, 1Sa_23:13. It was not a wild and lawless band, hut a well organized company, who were here trained in warfare, so that many of them afterwards became heroes in the nation.
v. 3. And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab, southeast of the Dead Sea, the country of his great-grandmother; and he said unto the king of: Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do for me. He wanted his aged parents to have some protection, to live in some degree of security, until the present uncertain period. of his own life would come to an end.
v. 4. And he brought them before the king of Moab, to remain under the latter's protection; and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold, in his fortified position, in his mountain fastness near Mizpeh.
v. 5. And the Prophet Gad said unto David, in a direct message which shows the loving care of God, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. The Prophet Gad may have been one of the band which lived near Ramah, where David became acquainted with him, 1Sa_19:18. Then David departed, out of the land of Moab, and came into the forest of Hareth, an unknown region, probably in the southwestern part of the territory of Judah. Like David, his great descendant, Jesus, accompanied by only a small band of faithful men, befriended by publicans and sinners, journeyed about in this country, in Palestine, entering into His glory through suffering and persecution.